It's unfortunate that they went in that direction as opposed to something like a tire tax. Just have the regular smog tests also include a tire wear check to catch the folks trying to run their tires bald.
Much cheaper than the tax portion of a year's gasoline consumption.
(amount is from the rough average annual mileage of 13,500mi/year, assuming 30mpg, and the 82c/gallon tax).
Incentivizing the failure to replace wear items is bad policy.
> Incentivizing the failure to replace wear items is bad policy.
I see it as the least bad option out of the ones that we can field. Every kind of taxation policy will have pros and cons, and IMO the tire tax is potentially the one with the least amount of friction to implement and enforce.
except that EVs don't have smog tests